The successful applicants will get the opportunity to provide local residents and businesses with fibre broadband
speeds in the range of 80-100Mbps, as well as high-speed wireless
connectivity.

"These ultra-fast speeds will allow more cities in the UK to compete
with the fastest in the world, bringing new opportunities for growth,
the development of high-tech industries and the transformation of
public services," culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a
statement.

To qualify for the shortlist, cities had to
cover at least 45,000 homes and businesses, or at least 35,000 in the
case of those in Northern Ireland. They also had to be places that
ISPs such as BT were not already targeting in their private-sector
rollouts.

By 18 May, the government will give the cities on the shortlist
guidance on the next stage of the bidding process. They will now
need to come up with plans for how they would use their share of the
£50m, and the winners will be announced in the autumn.

The larger cities that get to share the £100m pot are: Birmingham,
Bradford, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham,
Manchester and Sheffield. All are now working on detailed plans for
their deployments, the DCMS said.

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David Meyer is a freelance technology journalist. He fell into journalism when he realised his musical career wouldn't be paying many bills. His early journalistic career was spent in general news, working behind the scenes for BBC radio and on-air as a newsreader for independent stations. David's main focus is on communications, of both...
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